Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. Issues related to sanctions against Russia are more and more often transforming into personified verbal assaults on President Vladimir Putin and the fact cannot but cause bewilderment, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

As he answered a question about possible charges the US might issue to the Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko in the light of the latter man’s links to Putin, which are often emphasized in the West, Peskov said, “They’re doing it all the time and every time we cannot express anything but astonishment in this connection.”

This is one more testimony to the eventual focusing of attack on Russia on the personality of its leader, he said.

Russia and its leader are not made of guttapercha and this causes discomfort abroad, Peskov told the media.

“Putin, as a strong leader capable of consolidating a considerable part of society, an overwhelming part of society, is not very comfortable for those who would prefer to do business with a guttapercha country, a gutta-percha Russia. It is not that kind of country,” Peskov said